On the scientific side, he
gave us midi-chlorians.
In The Phantom Menace,
Qui-Gon Jinn describes midi-chlorians as subcellular symbionts, presumably
akin to mitochondria and chloroplasts, who behave as the vehicles of the
Force within all living things.
We can assume from Obi-Wan's
astonishment at Anakin Skywalker's midi-chlorian count -- "Not even Master
Yoda has a count that high!" -- that Force sensitivity is proportional
to the quantity of midi-chlorians found in one's cells.
What's the point? First,
midi-chlorians add a science-fiction element to the otherwise New Age Force.
Second, they help explain why Force sensitivity is hereditary.
But the tiny organisms pose
far more problems than they solve.
~
Not the father's portion
If midi-chlorians have any
value in shoring up the science in George Lucas's science fantasy, they
resemble mitochondria in more than name alone.
Mitochondria are the cellular
organelles that transform chemical energy into usable form. They evolved
from bacterial cells that were consumed by larger cells, and instead of
being digested, they were incorporated into a symbiotic system -- providing
an energy factory to the host cell in exchange for protection and nutrients.
As a remnant of the time
when the two cells were independent organisms, mitochondria possess their
own genome -- their own little chromosome, which they use to reproduce
themselves more or less independently of the host.
In most sexually reproducing
organisms, mitochondria are strictly maternally inherited. Only ova, not
spermatozoa, donate them to offspring. The reason for this is simply that
spermatozoa are designed to carry nuclear genetic information as efficiently
and compactly as possible, with no extras.
(Spermatozoa contain mitochondria
for energy production, but these are not usually incorporated into the
fertilized egg. Even then, only a limited number of them can thumb a ride
aboard a spermatozoon without rendering the host sterile.)
As such, Anakin Skywalker
could not have provided his twins with a midi-chlorian count of "over 20,000"
per cell at the time of conception. And his mysterious "father" -- whether
the Force itself or some more mundane agent -- would have no bearing on
his high Force potential.
Why isn't Force sensitivity
a legacy passed on by the
mothers of the Skywalker line, Shmi and Amidala (and potentially Leia)?
Naturally, since Lucas is
writing fiction, we can imagine all kinds of interesting mechanisms by
which the number of midi-chlorians per cell could be inherited through
the father, but then we have to ask ourselves whether such a needlessly
complicated "scientific" element enriches the Star Wars universe.
~
The aesthetic objection
It was all a lot less confusing
when a knack for the Force remained a mysterious, yet credible, aspect
of character that simply appeared to be hereditary.
It was easy enough to assume
then that there was something in a person's genetically determined physical
makeup – most likely an emergent property of brain structure, like musical
talent or mathematical genius – that gave him or her a degree of Force
talent.
That wasn't stretching our
imaginations too far.
But they've been stretching
uncomfortably since The Phantom Menace as the philosophical – or
even theological – questions got murkier.
Now that the Force is God,
and midi-chlorians are the effectors or physical presence of God in all
living things, and furthermore midi-chlorians are subcellular symbionts
necessarily possessing a genome of their own, we have to wonder if we can
sequence God.
Probably no more than we
can map consciousness on the neocortex, but the absurdity remains.
The mystic Force of the original
trilogy left a staggering abyss of phenomena unexplained, but we could
almost believe in it.
Now we have to make a further
leap of faith, suspending disbelief in some microscopic organelles who
not only possess a complicated reproductive system, represent the Will
of God and can collectively organize a sort of parthenogenetic miracle
in the form of immaculate conception.
It's difficult, to say the
least. Like many fans, I have to wish Lucas had given these puzzling little
subcellular Force-critters a blast of Raid.
Doubtless the next two episodes
contain a more satisfying explanation than Qui-Gon Jinn was able to provide
to the justifiably confused nine-year-old Anakin – as well as a few more
surprises.
And since the beauty of science
fiction is toying with the implausible, I won't
be chucking out my Chewbacca t-shirt any time soon, midi-chlorians
notwithstanding,.
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